1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for forming an image employing, for example, an electrophotographic system for transferring and fixing an image formed of a toner on an image carrying member to a recording medium, and in particular, it relates to improvements of a process for forming an image, an apparatus for forming an image, and a fixing device, that are effective for imparting gloss to an image formed of a toner on a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional apparatus for forming an image using the electrophotographic system generally uses such a system that an image formed of a toner is carried on an image carrying member, such as a photoreceptor drum and an intermediate transfer belt, and the image is transferred and fixed to paper as a recording medium.
This kind of the image forming apparatus may have, as a fixing device for rapidly fixing the toner image to the recording medium, a first non-contact fixing unit for heating the surface of the recording medium in a non-contact manner, and a second contact fixing unit disposed in the downstream side of the first fixing unit along the transporting direction of the recording medium. In the second fixing unit, the recording medium is nip-transported under heating and pressing between a pair of fixing rolls, which are rotated in contact with each other (as disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2000-352888).
In this kind of the image forming apparatus, however, there is such a technical problem that it is considerably difficult to change the gloss of the image fixed on the recording medium along with the gloss of the recording medium as equivalent to offset printed matters.
For example, in the case where an image forming apparatus providing high image gloss irrespective to the smoothness of the recording medium, a recording medium having a low smoothness provides poor texture due to the large difference in gloss between the recording medium and the image part.